i left the house sporting my eggplant/oatmeal bicolored sneakers. in my haste to wear new shoes, i forgot to bring the thai red curry leftover i had in the fridge. around lunchtime, kristine and james went out to check out the first night activities down in boston common. i gave kristine my camera and asked if she could help take some photos, since i was going to go running with alex instead. while they were off on the photo recon mission, alex and i headed up to the north end to pick up those medeco office keys. the story of these keys is a sad one, they were supposed to be made a while back, but it kept on getting delayed, first he didn't have the proper identification to get these security keys made, then they forgot to make them, and wouldn't you know it, we get to the key shop and it's closed on new year's eve. after rattling the cage door a little bit, we continued our run northwards towards the museum of science, then southwest along storrow drive, until we got to the exercise station, where we crossed the pedestrian overpass to sherborn street, northeast along back street, through boston's historical residential areas.

back at the office, kristine and james came back with reports from the battle front, something about sad melting ice sculptures and how the boston common squirrels are so tame they've actually become aggressive when it comes to approaching humans for food. i ordered some smelly tofu for lunch, figured my last meal of 2003 should be one of my favorite foods of all time.

after work i wandered around boston common a little bit, the park starting to fill up with people out celebrating first night. i wanted to see the ice sculptures for myself, and true to reports, they were in a sorry state, crumbled, melted, not worth the price of the free admission to see them. i caught the tail end of the new year's eve parade and overheard some guy tell his girlfriend, "my brother was born in the year of the monkey, my uncle was born in the year of the monkey, and my mother was born in the year of the monkey."

skating rink

flag float

maparium float

year of the monkey

melted ice castle

silhouettes

state house

i tried to get my prescription again at the porter square cvs. once again, they didn't have it, and ran my name through their computer system, neither my doctor called the pharmacy nor the pharmacist called my doctor. i was ready to call it another loss when the woman behind the counter said she could give me just enough for a few days. i got three pills and when i asked how much, she shook her head and waved me along.

back at home, i ate the rest of my thai red curry leftover (pretty gross, thai food doesn't preserve very well apparently), then headed down to harvard square to catch the free 66 bus into allston to dan's place for his new year's eve bash. long lines snaked out of bars, as people waited for a coveted spot inside these popular drinking holes. i stopped off at a liquor store beforehand, getting a bottle of sweet muscat flavored champagne for the special event. quite frankly, i would've been happy alone at home for new year's eve in front of the television watching the law & order: special victims unit marathon on the usa network, but the big attraction for me in going over to dan's place wasn't the party, but rather his fish tank, combined with my newfound interests in having an aquarium of my very own. we alternated between dick clark's new year's even celebration (surprisingly bland this year, all the musical numbers were prerecorded and didn't was hiding in a studio somewhere while cohosts jessica simpson and her husband worked a faux party crowd at another unspecified location) and univision's new year's eve variety show hosted by the sabado gigante guy and a bevy of spanish hotties. at the clock approached midnight, dan worked the champagne bottle, feverishly getting it opened and pouring us all a cup of fizzle water as 2003 became 2004.

i left after 1am, catching the last 66 bus back to harvard square. there was hardly anybody else on the t, most people staying out for a little bit longer, grabbing taxis instead of public transportation. "she was wasted!" the bus driver said to me as a drunk girl stumbled off of the bus along with her date. "yeah, a little bit," i replied with a chuckle. i walked back home from harvard square and watched a few more hours of special victims unit before going to bed.